From Alan
Richardson…..St Paul’s School was used for all
sorts of things over the years, Plays, Pantomimes, Parties, Dances, Local
Elections, Talks, etc

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St Paul’s Schoolduring
the 1980s

Interviewee -
Anthony AshworthBorn
1978Current resident 22 Crow Lane.

St
Paul’s School.

I came to this school . from being four year old.

.

Mrs Chamberlain, the existing headmistress was here
then, she’d been here a couple of years then, she had just started a year.Let me think, Mrs Martin, there’s another existing teacher, I think,
that’s still here.I think they
were all female teachers when I was here, bar one man.There was Mrs Ramsden [I think it was] one of the other teachers that was
here.Mrs Isherwood.They were the main four, if you were – there were a couple of others
that used to stand in but they are the main four teachers that used to be in
years one, two, three and four, the infants and reception class.

When I was here in the school there were roughly
between 80 and 90 pupils. This school actually took between 80 and 90.There was 84 when I left. I remember that.There was 84 pupils.

All the partitions that separate these three
classrooms and the assembly hall, what was the assembly hall,all this all moves and they are all on runners. They are actually sealed
up but from the back here one panel moves in at a time and they just all collect
at the back.You will see all the runners at the bottom classroom, which
will make this, all this, into one big open room.

So it was when
you were here, it was one open room was it?

Well they were using these, they still had these, but
neighbours say they don’t use them.I’ve
never seen them actually opened.They
did move them to do renovations on it and to clean it all up but they keep these
partitions in all the time to keep the classrooms separated off.

When you were here (at this school)you lived on Crow Lane did you?

Yes,

Did you actually go home for your dinner?

No, I used to stay in and used to have school
dinners. They were good enough for eating, you know.They were all right there.So we used to stop in.That
was thedining hall as well then.
This was the dining hall outside here, and in the old plans of the school they
had a stage at the back of there, and that was like, that big classroom there,
was just a partitioned wall and the rest of the hall was used as a dining room
with tables and chairs in it

It’s closing now?

It’s
closing this year, yes, the end of this term.

What do you think about that?

Its upsetting really, it is, because, like I say,
I’ve known Margaret from a very early age. I mean if she weren’t a good
headmistress she wouldn’t still be here today would she?And the school, like I say, you can ask anybody who’s been here, or
who’s actually been in the actual school itself, even people as old as 80’s,
90’s can remember coming to this school they’ll tell you how…..I think the school, it closes, in the end the community round here you
know, like there’s St Paul’s, there’s St Andrew’s, there’s St
Joseph’s, there’s Peel Brow, but for like Ramsbottom centre, central
Ramsbottom and the people who lived here, I think this is like a big
central…..

Like a focus point?

Like a focus point, yes. I mean a lot of people would
be, you know, upset that the school was shut.I mean there’s memories for me in this school you know.There’s memories for a lot of people who came here, like the teacher
that was teaching us when we left, unfortunately died not so long back, I think
it was about 1999 – no it weren’t, 1997 or 96 something like that..The teacher who actually taught us, she had a brain haemorrhage I think
and died.

But I left the school just before it had all the
recent renovations at the back here, before it was actually pulled down and made
smaller. You know they concentrated it a lot smaller and did some structural
work and that’s when I left just before then in 1989.

People were saying
the central heating was here when they were here in the 30’s

Yes, well that was one of the early 1900 heating
systems, paraffin heating systems, that were installed in here.And then the big back boiler at the back, I remember that, having to fire
that up, when it went cold, I mean it did go cold, I mean you’re talking
wooden floors, you’re talking…. Oh it were freezing.You used to get cold in here, at times, yes.